SAN FRANCISCO ó Eight years after he was sentenced to death for the murders of his wife and unborn son, Scott Peterson has filed an automatic appeal to the California Supreme Court.

Death penalty lawyer Cliff Gardner filed the 423-page document Thursday.Peterson has always maintained his innocence and his appeal to the Supreme Court is no different. Gardner claims that the overwhelming publicity Petersonís trial received, incorrect evidentiary rulings and other mistakes deprived him of a fair trial. Peterson was convicted in 2004 after a trial that his attorney argues surpassed the O.J. Simpson murder trial in terms of publicity. ::snipping2::The thick legal brief delves into numerous other issues alleging incorrect rulings, juror misconduct and other errors.

All death penalty cases are appealed to the California Supreme Court, which is struggling to keep up with the pace of cases. There are 725 inmates on Death Row and no prisoner has been executed in California since January 2006. Lawsuits in federal and state courts have temporarily halted executions.

The appeal is expected to take months, if not years, to be resolved.

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

SAN FRANCISCO ó Eight years after he was sentenced to death for the murders of his wife and unborn son, Scott Peterson has filed an automatic appeal to the California Supreme Court.

Death penalty lawyer Cliff Gardner filed the 423-page document Thursday.Peterson has always maintained his innocence and his appeal to the Supreme Court is no different. Gardner claims that the overwhelming publicity Petersonís trial received, incorrect evidentiary rulings and other mistakes deprived him of a fair trial. Peterson was convicted in 2004 after a trial that his attorney argues surpassed the O.J. Simpson murder trial in terms of publicity. ::snipping2::The thick legal brief delves into numerous other issues alleging incorrect rulings, juror misconduct and other errors.

All death penalty cases are appealed to the California Supreme Court, which is struggling to keep up with the pace of cases. There are 725 inmates on Death Row and no prisoner has been executed in California since January 2006. Lawsuits in federal and state courts have temporarily halted executions.

The appeal is expected to take months, if not years, to be resolved.

I followe4d this case fairly closely, and there may be grounds for a new trial, but I don't see the outcome being any different. JMOFrankly, I hope it takes decades and decades for his appeal to be heard.

Notorious death row killer appeals death sentence, claiming his innocence, eight years after convictionJuly 6 '12

A death row inmate, convicted of killing his wife and unborn son, is appealing his death sentence, maintaining his claim of innocence.

Scott Peterson filed the automatic appeal of his 2004 death sentence to the California Supreme Court on Thursday, saying, as he always has, that he had nothing to do with the murders of Laci, his wife, and Conner, the child she was carrying.

Peterson's attorney, noted death penalty lawyer Cliff Gardner, filed the 423-page document eight years after a San Mateo County jury found the former fertilizer salesman guilty of suffocating Laci and dumping her in the San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002. ::snipping2::

Inside Scott Peterson's Life On San Quentin's Death Row Posted on Jul 09, 2012 @ 02:00PM

::snipping2::The appeal process could take months or years due to a backlog of death penalty cases, meanwhile one of America's most hated men has the privilege of spending five hours a day outside of his cell doing recreational activities such as playing basketball, jogging, walking or board games, reported FoxNews.com.

According to prison spokesman Samuel Robinson, all prisoners are allowed six cubic feet of personal property. "This can include legal documents, photos, letters, and items that they are allowed to purchase at the canteen (hygiene and allowable food items)," he said.

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As with other inmates "on condemned status" (death row), he lives in a single cell and the former fertilizer salesman has not had a job assignment since he moved to San Quentin.

Peterson -- who has always maintained his innocence -- appears to get on well with his fellow prisoners and staff and has not gotten in any angry interactions with them or altercations, revealed Robinson, explaining that he has the opportunity to socialize with 34 other people also awaiting the death penalty during his recreational time.

The dark-haired killer had such a strong female following during the early years of his sentence that he was nicknamed "Scotty Too Hotty," but the prison representative said the flood of fan mail has slowed down and he is not getting as many letters "as he initially received."

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Located in Marin County in northern California, San Quentin's death row has been described as "the largest in the Western Hemisphere," and "the most populous execution antechamber in the United States." Records from December 2008 show that there were 637 male inmates in its Condemned Unit.

All death penalty cases are appealed to the California Supreme Court, which is struggling to keep up with the pace of cases, according to the AP. There are 725 inmates on death row and no prisoner has been executed in California since January 2006. Lawsuits in federal and state courts have temporarily halted executions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was convicted eight years ago and sentenced to death for murdering his pregnant wife Laci and dumping her body into the San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve.

SCOTT PETERSON, FOUND GUILTY OF WIFE`S DEATH: I had nothing to do with her disappearance, but people still accuse me of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously we plan on pursuing every and all appeals.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We the jury in the above entitled cause fix the penalty at death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The court could look at this and say, you know something; he was deprived of a fair trial. There`s at least a possibility of a new trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: One of the nation`s most notorious convicted killers wants to get off death row, and right away, apparently. Will Scott Peterson`s brand new appeal get him a new trial? Peterson was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife Laci and then dumping the body into San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002. He was found guilty. He was sentenced to death. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has the jury arrived at a verdict with respect to the penalty phase in this case?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have, your honor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Read the verdict.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People of the state of California versus Scott Peterson. We the jury in the above entitled cause fix the penalty at death, dated December 13, 2004.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But now Peterson says that death sentence should be overturned. He says the jurors were unfairly influenced by a mob of more than a thousand people waiting outside the courthouse who cheered the jurors after they found him guilty. We have footage of that cheer. Decide for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD CHEERING AFTER SCOTT PETERSON VERDICT)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And we are just absolutely delighted to have a Scott Peterson juror on the phone with us. You`ve written a new book called "We the Jury", Mike Belmessieri. And I hope I said your name right. What is your reaction to Scott Peterson wanting a new trial because you were cheered and the other jurors were cheered after convicting him?

MIKE BELMESSIERI, AUTHOR, "WE THE JURY": Yes, I`ll tell you, first of all, when people cheer that day, we all were pretty upset about hearing it because we didn`t see anything that was there to cheer about. But this nonsense about the jury being influenced by the media is absolutely, completely and beyond a shadow of a doubt absurd.

There`s no way we would have sent an innocent man to San Quentin, especially the death chamber. I mean, how crazy? I mean this guy lost his family. What greater injustice could be done if we were to convict an innocent man of that crime? That`s absurd.

And the very idea -- the very idea that anybody would think that that happened is just -- to me, it just really upsets me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ::snipping2::BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER FREY, SCOTT PETERSON`S EX-GIRLFRIEND: When I discovered he was involved in the Laci Peterson disappearance case, I immediately contacted the Modesto Police Department.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s Amber Frey, Scott Peterson`s ex-girlfriend. Gloria Allred, you represented her. She had no idea he was married. What do you say to this idea that there`s no evidence against him.

GLORIA ALLRED, VICTIMS` RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, obviously, the jury decided that in fact there was evidence beyond a reasonable doubt sufficient to convict him and in addition to recommend a death penalty.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, but I mean -- agreed. He lied to her. He told her that he was a widower even before his wife went missing. Didn`t he say that he was in Paris to Amber Frey when he was actually at a vigil for his missing wife?

ALLRED: And that was so shocking -- you`re absolutely right, Jane. And Amber Frey my client, who didn`t know that he was married to Laci and was dating him, she was very brave and she (inaudible) recorded telephone calls that Scott Peterson made to her at the vigil and at other times. She did so at the request of the police and she put her own life at risk as a result. ::snipping2::

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

Another obvious case of guilt. I say we dump him and Casey in jail with Joran in the pits of Peru prison, in the worst case scenario, throw away the key and forget they ever existed! They can fight over each other's ego's. Drew Peterson belongs with them as well!

Scott Peterson's prospects for overturning his death sentence may have improved this week.

Peterson, convicted of the Christmas Eve 2002 murders of his wife, Laci, and their 8-month-old fetus, filed his appeal July 5 with the state Supreme Court. One issue his lawyer raised was the trial judge's dismissals of 13 prospective jurors who said in pretrial questionnaires that they opposed the death penalty but might be able to vote for a death verdict in a proper case.

Those dismissals, defense attorney Cliff Gardner argued, violated Peterson's right to an impartial jury, a delicate issue in capital cases. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that jurors who oppose the death penalty in all cases can be excluded, but those who say they can put their personal views aside may be seated.

The state's high court, which automatically reviews all death sentences in California, shed new light on that issue Monday when it unanimously reversed the death sentence of John Riccardi of Los Angeles.More...

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

Another obvious case of guilt. I say we dump him and Casey in jail with Joran in the pits of Peru prison, in the worst case scenario, throw away the key and forget they ever existed! They can fight over each other's ego's. Drew Peterson belongs with them as well!

A reporter who gained access to the nation's largest death row in California inadvertently discovered that she had captured pictures of Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murder more than seven years ago. ::snipping2::

Video at Link

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

Scott Peterson's Life on Death Row: The Inside Story09/23/2012 at 09:05 AM EDT

Joking with others, shooting hoops and scoring baskets Ė to look at Scott Peterson, one would hardly imagine he's incarcerated on San Quentin's Death Row.

And yet, that is how journalist Nancy Mullane found the former fertilizer salesman when she visited the California state penitentiary where Peterson is confined to a solitary 7-by-9-ft. cell for the Christmas Eve 2002 killings of his wife Laci and their unborn son, and then dumping their remains into San Francisco Bay.

"He didnít look depressed. He looked like someone you'd see on the street playing basketball. He had his shirt off and his boxer shorts up," says Mullane, who was given an unprecedented level of media access to the prison for her book about the rehabilitation of condemned killers, Life After Murder: Five Men In Search of Redemption. "He wasn't ripped, but he looked healthy."

She says Peterson, who turns 40 next month, may have put on a couple of pounds but didn't look much different from when he was sentenced in 2005. As for his basketball game, which had the inmate's complete interest, "He was playing a pretty hard game," says Mullane. "There was a lot of jumping around and making baskets" as guards armed with rifles watched from nearby.

After the game, she says, Peterson returned to his cell wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses. A few minutes later, Mullane saw him walking to the shower in flip-flops and shorts. Mullane also noted that Peterson was one of the youngest men in his cellblock. ::snipping2::

Another obvious case of guilt. I say we dump him and Casey in jail with Joran in the pits of Peru prison, in the worst case scenario, throw away the key and forget they ever existed! They can fight over each other's ego's. Drew Peterson belongs with them as well!

ITA

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Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware/Of giving your heart to a dog to tear -- Rudyard KiplingI'm with the majority of American's that voted for Hillary Clinton...and I am a registered Republican!

(CNN) -- Ten years ago, Sharon Rocha was expecting her pregnant daughter, Laci Peterson, at dinner on Christmas Eve. Instead, she received a call that Laci was missing.Teams of police and community members scoured the woods and fields near Modesto, California, that night, again on Christmas Day, and for weeks afterward, but there was no sign of her. Four months later, her body washed ashore 90 miles away in the San Francisco Bay. She was 27.But it is Christmas, not springtime, that stirs a deep sadness in Laci Peterson's mother.Every Christmas season brings a reminder that Laci's life and her unborn son's were taken during what should have been a time of joy and anticipation. ::snipping2::Prosecutors posited this theory at his trial: Peterson, who was having an extramarital affair with a massage therapist, smothered or strangled Laci in the bedroom of their Modesto home on December 23 or 24, 2002. He then dumped her body in the San Francisco Bay during a Christmas Eve fishing trip.But there was little forensic evidence, and Peterson maintains his innocence to this day.The former fertilizer salesman, who was married to Laci for five years, was convicted of murdering Laci and Conner. He was sentenced to death, which appears to be years away. Hundreds of people gathered outside the courthouse and cheered the jury's decision.Rocha doesn't follow the news about Peterson. But she knew something happened in his case last summer because of all the voice mail messages she received. Peterson's attorneys had just filed his appeal and the media wanted her reaction. She read no further than the first page of the court filing, which asks for a new trial.Rocha sold the home she lived in when Laci disappeared, but she still lives in Modesto. Laci and Scott's house on Modesto's Covena Avenue is for sale again, listed at less than half the 2005 purchase price of $390,000.

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan